MAYBE I've been watching too much Gordon Ramsay on TV, but there's no other way to put it, the fishcakes were f..ken awful.

And, spurred on by a little too much red wine, I wondered whether those soggy lumps of god-knows-what represented more than just a culinary disgrace.

But let me start at the beginning.

The Gatekeeper and I this week hosted family on holiday from interstate.

Only one of them had visited Cairns before, a long time ago, so it gave me the opportunity to see the place through fresh eyes.

They saw most of their trip as a little bland, sometimes second-rate and often overpriced, like my dodgy fishcakes. 

Their hotel room on the Esplanade was poorly serviced, the pool decking was covered in week-old bird poo and most of their meals in various restaurants were disappointing.

They were let down by the tacky, generic arts and crafts on offer at Kuranda and, like me, completely dismayed with the lack of character and ambience in the CBD.

Nothing about the visit bowled them over or sent them back with enough enthusiasm to tell friends that the Far North is a must-see destination.

Their experiences dovetailed with separate conversations I had during the week with a restaurant owner and a taxi driver.

They both painted a grim picture of the local economy, saying the mood and declining visitor numbers reminded them of the dark days of the pilot`s strike in 1989, which forced businesses to close and hundreds out of jobs.

I hate to be the first to say it out loud, but I don`t think it would be such a bad thing for the Far North to hit the bottom of the boom and bust cycle again.

The market will dictate the winners and losers. Quality operators will survive, sub-standard operators will not.

But back to the fishcakes. The Gatekeeper and I were craving some Thai food after a magical and, dare I say it, romantic night in Sydney the week before.

In a crowded restaurant there, the size of a loungeroom, we had eaten the greatest Thai food we had ever tasted - simple, fresh and delicious - and the total bill had been just $35.

It was a small but great holiday experience, something we talked about when we arrived back home, something we would tell friends about and go back to.

Judging by the views of my visiting relatives, not to mention the quality of those damn fishcakes, Cairns is seriously lacking tourism drawcards, large and small.

Has the industry become complacent? Is there a lack of leadership in the political and private sector?

Do we need to find new attractions, beyond the Reef and rainforest?

In a great column in The Cairns Post`s Business Week liftout on Wednesday, publicist Pip Miller postulated that an event such as Festival Cairns could become one such drawcard.

There will be pain but the silver lining in a downturn of tourism`s economic cycle could be a shedding of the city`s old skin and a refresh and refocus of the region`s energies.

We need to spark new interest in the place, and better attractions and quality restaurants and a new CBD would benefit tourists as much as locals.

Then, we could have our fishcakes and eat them too.

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